Looking back and ahead: David Krejci

With the Bruins’ season in the books, WEEI.com will take a look at each player on the roster one-by-one to provide some perspective on what went wrong this season and what the future holds for the 2011 champions.

Looking back: Krejci has centered the Bruins’ top line for the majority of the last two season, spending most of his time skating with Milan Lucic[2]and either Nathan Horton[3]or Rich Peverley[4].Claude Julien[5]playedTyler Seguin[6] with Krejci and Lucic late in the regular season and for a portion of the playoffs. That made for a more offensively potent line, but defensively it was a risky line to have on the ice against other teams’ top-six forwards.

Production-wise, Krejci ran hot and cold, which wasn’t exactly a new development. He had an 11-game point-streak from Dec. 17-Jan 14 (five goals, 11 assists), but he also had long lulls in which he didn’t produce. Krejci managed just one point and a minus-6 rating in 11 games from Feb. 2-Feb. 24. He finished the regular season with a minus-5 rating. Only Shawn Thornton[7] (minus-7) fared worse from a plus-minus standpoint.

Like Lucic, Krejci was one of the biggest goats of the postseason. He went without a point in the first four games, and though the managed three points (two goals, one assist) the rest of the way, he once again showed an inability to truly have an impact in the first round (in 14 quarterfinal games over the last two season, Krejci has just four points).

Looking ahead: The Bruins made sure to lock Krejci up during the regular season, giving him a three-year, $15.75 million deal. That makes him the Bruins’ highest-paid forward, so the team should be looking for more consistent regular-season production and better play early on in the playoffs.

Krejci has still yet to repeat his production from his career-best season in 2008-09 (22 goals, 51 assists for 73 points and a plus-37 rating). For $5.25 million a year, he should get back to producing at that level.

On breakup day, Krejci subtly hinted at frustration about being moved around in the lineup at points during the regular season. For a player making the kind of money he’s getting, that’s the wrong attitude. The right attitude would be to respond to demotions by performing his way out of it.